The Steel Wheels - Everyone a Song, Vol. 1 (2020)

The Steel Wheels are connecting a far-flung fanbase through shared experience and the revolutionary act of personal storytelling with their latest album, Everyone A Song, Vol. 1. A testament to joyful trust from supporters as well as tight musicianship and strong DIY spirit within the band, Everyone A Song, Vol. 1 and an accompanying podcast, We Made You A Song is an album for our times, written for and in collaboration with The Steel Wheels community.

In the spring of 2020, ready to continue their dynamic stage show on the road, The Steel Wheels instead found themselves spread across the country, isolated from one another and their listeners. The five band members endeavored to bridge the distance the best they knew how, by creating music. Through a project they called Distance Together, the band gathered stories from fans and set them to song, relying on the perceptive wit and imaginative storytelling of Trent Wagler. Requests poured in as folks across the country wished to commemorate weddings, birthdays, the beginning of a life, the end of a selfless career. Each band member recorded parts in makeshift studios and passed audio and video files to the next Steel Wheel in line, relying on intuition and years of musical partnership to arrange the pieces in real time. Mixed and mastered by the band’s own Kevin Garcia, the songs took shape and took on lives of their own.

Universal in their specificity, the songs reflect a desire for meaning and connection in a time when trauma and physical distance keep us apart. Realizing these stories deserved a broader audience, The Steel Wheels went back to their fans, requesting to release the music and to capture the stories in a brand new podcast, We Made You a Song. It is evidence of the band’s commitment to the loving act of listening and the restorative power of having one’s story told.